During the concert featuring the NFM Choir, we will hear choral works of the Renaissance and more recent eras. The artists will be led by a recognized conductor of the young generation – Benjamin Kirk.

The evening will begin with the sound of Dear Lord of Life by the English composer and organist Thomas Tomkins, a a student of the great Renaissance artist William Byrd. In addition to this work, there will also be various compositions inspired by Renaissance stylistics. Among them there will be motets of Spanish and Italian composers: O quam gloriosum by Tomás Luis de Victoria, Ave virgo sanctissima by Francisco Guerrero, Simile est regnum caelorum by Cristóbal de Morales or created at the beginning of the seventeenth century Sancti Spiritus Domine by Gesualdo da Venosa. The programme also features pieces by Orlando di Lasso, the last of the great Renaissance musicians of Franco-Flemish origin. His rich work, covering over two thousand pieces, is diverse, we can find both masses and madrigals, as well as songs and motets. One of them is Adorna thalamum, which will be sung by the NFM Choir on 15 May.

We will also hear works intended for vocal line-ups created during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Among them there will be a work by the leading author of the Romantic era, Felix Mendelssohn: Denn er hat seinen Engeln befohlen über dir, a motet composed in 1844 and dedicated to Frederick William IV, king of Prussia of the Hohenzollern dynasty. The repertoire also includes works by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Norwegian composer Knut Nystedt, and Arvo Pärt, the latter conidered one of the most original artists, called the mystic of contemporary music. The Polish contribution will be Jacek Sykulski’s Pater noster.